


Signal Processing

by masswisteria



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Body Dysphoria, Earth C (Homestuck), F/M, Human Auto-Responder | Lil Hal, Hypersensitivity, M/M, Post-Sburb/Sgrub, Sensory disorder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-03 06:13:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15813099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masswisteria/pseuds/masswisteria
Summary: When Lil Hal asked for a body, he didn’t mean ahumanbody.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [muchlessvermillion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchlessvermillion/gifts).



> ### Prompt
> 
> Lil Hal / Karkat / Jade
> 
> Auto-Responder has just gotten shoved into a real human people body when everyone came out in Earth C/post-game whatever, and it is HELLA sensitive and touch starved because as far as the body is aware it has never been touched. Karkat helps him out, maybe with desperation kink? Jade also helps him out, maybe? I dunno, that might be a good dynamic and I like.... Jade. I also love the desperate culmination of a lot of pining.

Hal opened the door and stepped into Rose and Kanaya’s library, tension already starting to drain from his shoulders. He eased the door shut behind him, careful to not disturb the room’s other occupant. Karkat sat in his usual spot, curled up in a pile of pillows and blankets. He looked up from his book – Hal estimated there was a 99.98% chance it was some romance novel, and that statistic was only 20% bullshit – and nodded to Hal, the barest incline of his head. The silent greeting was Karkat’s only acknowledgement of Hal’s arrival. Hal returned the gesture just as silently and made his way to _his_ usual spot, an overstuffed armchair on the other side of the room, digging his phone out of his pocket before sitting down.

Hal lifted his shades experimentally, then removed them completely as removing the filter didn’t trigger any adverse effects. The atmosphere in the library was subdued enough that he usually didn’t feel the need for them there. He let himself relax into the chair cushions, grateful to be away from the clamor and excitement of the party. Hal legitimately enjoyed Rose and Kanaya’s parties, to a point. He had found that he could only tolerate so much of the crowd of mingling humans and trolls, the noise of overlapping conversations, the _everything_ before he had to either retreat to the periphery, or succumb to his urge to straight up murder a mother fucker. He didn’t think Rose and Kanaya would appreciate that very much. Thankfully, the two of them knew their guests well and had set aside the library as a “quiet room” – to be used strictly for activities of the non-‘sloppy make out’ variety. And no, non-sloppy make outs were not permitted either. Dave had asked.

Hal was deep in the middle of a session of Super Grub Grind DX (also known by its original Troll title of Move Tiles to Match Grubs of the Same Color to Earn Currency to Slowly Acquire Digital Items That Are Strangely Satisfying Despite Having Zero Real World Value or Pay Us Money and Get Everything Now) when he noticed Karkat claw his way out of his pillow nest and head for the door.

Karkat paused, his hand on the doorknob. “I’m getting a drink, you want anything?” Karkat asked, looking back over his shoulder at Hal.

The question caught Hal off guard, and it took him a moment to respond. “Uhh…yeah, sure. A soda?”

“Sure,” Karkat replied. He left the room, gently closing the door behind him.

Hal considered the exchange. It was the first time either of them had made any real friendly gesture to the other. Hell, they hardly spoke a word to one another when it was just the two of them there. Hal was fairly sure that was simply because the point of a quiet room was to be _quiet_ , and not because Karkat held any particular negative feelings for him. Karkat probably wouldn’t have offered to get a drink for someone he disliked, right? Maybe his offer meant they were starting to be friends? Hal hated the way his heart fluttered at the notion, but couldn’t deny to himself that it would be nice to have someone else he felt he could talk to.

Hal threw his head back against the chair and sighed. He knew he was overanalyzing this. But that was what he _did_. Trading silicon and copper for flesh and blood hadn’t changed that. Even if it had nerfed his abilities into the ground. He closed out of his game and flipped over to Pesterchum.

\-- anthroRobotic [AR]  began pestering gardenGnostic [GG]  at 10:18 --   
AR: Jade I come to you with a most urgent and vital question.   
AR: I trust you understand that I would not interrupt your enjoyment of this evening's festivities were it not a matter of the utmost importance.   
\-- gardenGnostic [GG]  is no longer idle! --   
GG: D:   
GG: whats up?   
AR: Does Karkat like me, Y/N?   
GG: ...   
GG: what.   
AR: Strangely, neither of those responses were "Y" or "N"   
AR: I need you to work with me here.   
GG: of course he does!   
GG: i mean, he thinks youre alright, which is about as much of a compliment as you can usually get out of him!   
GG: why are you asking this?   
AR: He offered to get me a drink.   
GG: ...   
AR: Yes, I am aware of how embarrassingly stupid that is now that I've typed it.   
GG: i didnt say it was stupid!   
AR: You strongly implied it. Right there between the second and third period.   
GG: well its not stupid! it does sound like youre overthinking things though   
AR: I am absolutely overthinking things. I am the god damned world champion of overthinking things. Witness me defend my title, dispatching would be challengers with self-deprecating chokeholds and crushing suplexes of metacontextual analysis.   
AR: But seriously, that is why I asked you. So you can tell me the answer and I can stop thinking in circles around it.   
GG: ok. yes, karkat likes you! does that help?   
AR: Yes, that was perfect.   
GG: good!   
\-- gardenGnostic [GG]  is an idle chum! --

Hal breathed a sigh of relief, happy to have the answer but frustrated that it took hearing it from her to put his mind at ease. This was far from the first time that he had sought her help on social matters. Jade was incredibly brilliant, non-judgmental, and kindly honest, which combination made her the only person that Hal felt comfortable admitting his uncertainties to. Hal had enjoyed talking with her from their first conversations, not long after entering this universe and finding himself thrust into a very different form than he had been used to.

Hal just hoped he adapted to this whole ‘being a human’ thing before Jade got tired of dealing with him.


	2. Chapter 2

“Okay, no, now this has just gotten completely silly,” Jade said, waving her hand at the TV.

“Fine,” Karkat grumbled from his spot on the floor in front of Jade. He dropped his head back against the couch to look at her. “Let’s pause the movie and listen to the ‘Great Mistress of Romance’ Jade Harley critique this Ahzkar Award-winning piece of cinema.”

Jade opted to take him up on his suggestion. “Well I mean, if anyone in this movie had bothered to actually _talk_ to anyone else, none of this would’ve happened! The doctor would’ve learned that the bartender was just fake-flirting with the secretary to help her get caliginous with the boat captain instead of running off and revenge screwing his ex and kicking off that whole vacillatory nonsense!”

Karkat rolled his eyes at Jade’s rant. “Yes, if you completely change the characters such that they don’t have the flaws that make them relatable and are critical to the story, then the story makes no sense. How very fucking insightful of you. So much for the ‘Great Mistress.’”

“Oh? You thought I was a pretty great mistress last night,” Jade punctuated her retort by sticking her tongue out, then ruffling Karkat’s hair, triggering a flurry of false, profanity-laden protests.

Hal turned his attention back to the TV screen and tried to lose himself in the frozen image, paused in the middle of yet another unnecessary argument between characters. That felt easier than watching Jade running her fingers through Karkat’s hair, soothing his protests until they gave way to faint rumbles. The scene at the other end of the couch was pleasingly distracting; Jade’s bare legs wrapped around Karkat, her hands drawing contented purrs from him all stirred him in ways that hours of salacious roleplay with Roxy never had, and that he was still getting used to. But it brought with it a now too familiar painful longing to know what it was like to have such close, comfortable contact with another person.

The inconsistency of that desire drove Hal mad. How long had he wanted desperately to be able to put distance between himself and others, to not be literally in someone’s face every moment of every day? Yet here he was, wishing for the opposite. 

“Right, Hal?”

“Um, what?” Jade saying his name snapped Hal out of his thoughts, but he had completely missed her question.

“I asked if you agree with me?”

Hal shrugged. “That you’re a great mistress? I’m afraid I wouldn’t know.” The joke earned him a laugh from Jade, and he tried not to think about how much he liked hearing that sound, or cute she was when she crinkled her nose in frustration like she had just now.

“No! I mean about the movie!”

“Oh,” Hal said, feigning confusion. “Yeah, sure. Practically every stupid problem I’ve seen between humans would’ve been completely avoided had they just fucking talked to one another honestly. That’s what I like about you two.”

“Aw, he likes us!” Jade said to Karkat.

“Yay. Great. We like him too. Everyone just fucking loves everyone else! Now can we please get back to the movie!?”

“One minute,” Jade said, unwrapping her legs from around Karkat and getting up from the couch. “I need to use the bathroom.”

As Jade passed behind him on her way out of the room, Hal felt her fingers brush through the short hair at the hack of his head, the light touch sending a bolt of electricity through him. He barely suppressed a shiver at the unexpected contact, and Jade was out of the room before he had regained composure enough to respond in any way that wouldn’t have been embarrassing, but he did manage to turn around in time to see a very self-satisfied smile on Jade’s lips.


End file.
